Wer wurde als homosexuell verfolgt?

This paper investigates the impact of the social structure on the persecution of homosexuals in Austria during the Nazi regime and the following democratic Republic. So far local studies for the German case have come to the conclusion that the middle class has been victim to the same, or event to a greater extent, of state-supported homophobia as the lower social class. An analysis of court files confirms this finding partly but reveals the working class as the mainly affected social group in the Austrian case. Social status, however, did only have a marginal influence on the length of imprisonment. The fact that different occupational groups were overrepresented among the sentenced homosexuals in the two considered periods of time (1938?C1944; 1945?C1955) points to systematic patterns of repression. As historical data is sparse we can only formulate hypotheses on why certain persons were more likely to be sentenced for being homosexual than others.     

Assessment of cognitive workload of in-vehicle systems using a visual peripheral and tactile detection task setting

The increase of driver information and infotainment systems includes also interaction technologies like speech interaction that minimize visual-manual demand and put the focus to cognitive demand. The question is whether this could lead to distraction effects and decreased traffic safety. This study presents an evaluation method for cognitive demand based on different detection paradigms in a dual task setting. A listening and a backward counting task are realized on three difficulty levels as simulations of cognitively loading secondary tasks and investigated using a visual versus a tactile detection paradigm. The results show that both detection paradigms are able to discriminate the task levels and that subjects successfully apply compensation strategies in the dual task setting especially during the listening task.     

Recovery and detachment between shifts, and fatigue during a twelve-hour shift

The study investigated the role of recovery and detachment in the break period between two shifts for fatigue in the current shift. A time-based paper-and-pencil diary study was carried out observing sixty-four railway controllers over ten consecutive working shifts. The results demonstrated that fatigue in the current shift was not only affected by recovery and psychological detachment during break phases before a shift, but also by fatigue at shift onset and perceived workload during the shift.     

How to reduce workload--augmented reality to ease the work of air traffic controllers

In the future the air traffic will rise--the workload of the controllers will do the same. In the BMWi research project, one of the tasks is, how to ensure safe air traffic, and a reasonable workload for the air traffic controllers. In this project it was the goal to find ways how to reduce the workload (and stress) for the controllers to allow safe air traffic, esp. at huge hub-airports by implementing augmented reality visualization and interaction.     

Child sexual abuse and psychological impairment in victims: results of an online study initiated by victims

Sexual abuse of children has been a topic of scientific investigation for the past few decades. Research in this area, however, is rarely initiated, conceptualized, and conducted by victims themselves. Apart from possibly having painted a one-sided picture of sexual abuse, this presumed dominance of nonvictims might also have marginalized victims in a research area central to their lives. This study was conducted by a victims interest group as an effort to meet the need to add victims' perspectives to our current understanding of this topic. The online survey focused on investigating victims' psychosocial impairment, which was found to be extensive. Results indicated that an intact social support system facilitates better health, especially when offered early on.     

Wer ist in Deutschland willkommen?Who is welcome in Germany?

Germany is currently experiencing a huge inflow of migrants. In this vignette study, we analyze how much different kinds of migrants are accepted in Germany. We investigate three different rights for migrants: the right to stay in Germany, the right to work in Germany and the right to receive social benefits. Our results show that people who flee from political persecution are much more accepted compared to migrants who come because of economic reasons. This is particularly true for the right to receive social benefits. On the other hand, our results suggest that there is a strong preference for high-skilled and culturally non-distant migrants. Concerns regarding individual competition on the job market seem to play only a minor role.     

Vice versus virtue investing around the world

This paper assumes the role of advocatus diaboli by testing whether an investment in sin stocks can financially outperform an investment in socially responsible stocks. We create a set of global, regional, and domestic portfolios consisting of a large number of stocks belonging to what could be labeled as a sextet of sin: adult entertainment, alcohol, gambling, nuclear power, tobacco, and weapons. We assess the performance of sin stocks against well-known benchmarks, and rerun the identical assessment for socially responsible stocks. We find no compelling evidence that sin stocks, or socially responsible stocks outperform or underperform, and establish this result in several ways. Consistent with this finding, a hedge portfolio long in sin stocks and short in socially responsible stocks does not outperform the market, either. However, sin stocks are substantially tilted towards value, bear less market risk with an average beta below one, and are prone to momentum relative to socially responsible stocks.     

The Risk Perception Paradox—Implications for Governance and Communication of Natural Hazards

This article reviews the main insights from selected literature on risk perception, particularly in connection with natural hazards. It includes numerous case studies on perception and social behavior dealing with floods, droughts, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, wild fires, and landslides. The review reveals that personal experience of a natural hazard and trust—or lack of trust—in authorities and experts have the most substantial impact on risk perception. Cultural and individual factors such as media coverage, age, gender, education, income, social status, and others do not play such an important role but act as mediators or amplifiers of the main causal connections between experience, trust, perception, and preparedness to take protective actions. When analyzing the factors of experience and trust on risk perception and on the likeliness of individuals to take preparedness action, the review found that a risk perception paradox exists in that it is assumed that high risk perception will lead to personal preparedness and, in the next step, to risk mitigation behavior. However, this is not necessarily true. In fact, the opposite can occur if individuals with high risk perception still choose not to personally prepare themselves in the face of a natural hazard. Therefore, based on the results of the review, this article offers three explanations suggesting why this paradox might occur. These findings have implications for future risk governance and communication as well as for the willingness of individuals to invest in risk preparedness or risk mitigation actions.